Forget St. Tropez, I'm going to Africa

October 23, 2006

Seems like you can't turn on a TV or open a magazine without tripping over a celeb in love with Africa. They're adopting babies, speaking about water shortages, documenting genocide in war torn regions, building schools and orphanages, organizing concerts and painting their faces to raise AIDS awareness. Africa has become more popular than the gift bag suite at the Oscars. Clearly, celebs have repped the continent for years. Who can forget those Sally Struthers infomercials? And Bono has been advocating for Africa since the 1980s. But lately, every time you turn on the television, it seems like another celebrity has parachuted into the continent. "I think it goes back to Bill Clinton, who put Africa front and center in pop culture," says Morris Reid, brand strategist and managing director for Westin Rinehart, a public affairs and marketing firm in Washington. "Then Bono, who frankly has done more for Africa than any single human being on the planet Earth. The combination of Clinton making it really important to the U.S. and then Bono bringing that extra amount of energy that a celebrity can bring, it's sort of starting to trickle down." ___ FLAVOR OF THE MONTH Recent interest in Africa raises questions about motivation. Are these celebs working in Africa to look good or because Africa is the flavor of the month? "It seems genuine," says Janice Min, editor-in-chief of US Weekly. "You can't argue against people like George Clooney who risk their lives by going to Darfur. Madonna obviously wanted a child but donating $3 million to help orphans in Malawi, that's hard to argue against. It's easy to look at the actions of celebrities quite cynically. I think most people, certainly those in Africa, feel whatever help is coming in, is better than the lack thereof." But Madonna has been accused of using her star power to swoop in and adopt a child in Malawi without regard for local custom. What about people who aren't rich who want to go to Africa and "hand-pick" a child? asks Jimi Izreal, a commentator for NPR and a columnist. "I'm not knocking helping the kids," he says. "But we're getting to the point where people are buying kids." Celebrities are helping their own image when they take up these causes, says Min. George Clooney's trip to Darfur "elevated him above the standard Hollywood hunk." And she says that Angelina Jolie now seems more known for her humanitarianism than her role in breaking up Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt's marriage. ___ CELEBRITY IMPACT How much influence can a celebrity have on an issue? Leigh Blake, CEO and president of "Keep A Child Alive," which provides retroviral medicine for people with AIDS in developing countries, says superstars make a huge difference. Her organization is behind the "I AM AFRICAN" campaign that was spearheaded by supermodel Iman and includes A-list celebrities, such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow and Richard Gere. "The public doesn't really trust politicians anymore," she says. "It's very hard to get the media to step up to this issue in a concerted way. Celebrities bring the issue home in a broad way in simple speak to ordinary people that react when they hear about it." Perhaps on the surface. Celeb interest does nothing to solve the deep-rooted problems in Africa, says Robert Fogler, co-founder and managing director of Thousand Hills Venture Fund, a for-profit venture capital fund investing in sub-Saharan Africa. He argues that all the media images of celebs saving "poverty stricken" Africans perpetuates stereotypes. The effect? According to Fogler, it's scaring away private foreign investment, which he says is more critical than charity. "A lot times celebrities will go to where the problems are, so the only images some people have of Africa, in general, is refugee camps. A war torn country, where there is nothing but starvation and suffering," says Fogler. "If the only stories that are being told are the same ones about AIDS and suffering, no one thinks about these countries as good places for their investment dollars." ___ BUT WHAT ABOUT CLOSER TO HOME? A recent "Primetime" show about AIDS in the black community featured footage of celebrities visiting South Africa to raise money for AIDS awareness and then went on to examine how the AIDS crisis in black America is being overlooked. The show reported that AIDS is the leading cause of death among black women 25-44 and has been for 11 years. "There's a tendency for people to look outside the border because they think it will have a greater impact on their own personal brand," says Reid, "Or that America is such a wealthy country that we need to be giving back to places that are less fortunate." America may be richer than Africa, but it has its share of problems: more than 500,000 children are in foster care, 37 million live in poverty, 16 percent have no health insurance. Those issues aren't as glamorous and perhaps are not as serious as starvation, malaria and genocide. Reid says celebrities should latch on to American causes first. "If adoption is your thing, maybe you can become a catalyst to make other parents considering adoption to think about adopting in America first," he says. There are enough resources in America to help both places, says Albie Hecht, former president of entertainment at Nickelodeon. He is the founding board member of Shine Global, which produces films to highlight serious global challenges, such as the civil war in Uganda. "I would like to see more things happening here and contribute here," says Hecht. "But I feel like everything's global. We all impact each other. When you reduce AIDS in Africa, you reduce AIDS all over the world." __ Megan Scott is an asap reporter in New York.